


Unsweetened Herbal Tea

by glamorouspixels



Category: Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries
Genre: Clothing Kink, Established Phrack, F/M, Fireside Sex, Fluff and Smut, Huddling For Warmth, MFMMwhumptober, Romance, Tea, Thunderstorms, Wet Clothing, but smutty!, jack appreciation, jack's shirt, kind of? maybe?, love declarations inspired by tea
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-10
Updated: 2020-10-10
Packaged: 2021-03-08 03:15:09
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26928730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glamorouspixels/pseuds/glamorouspixels
Summary: Phryne and Jack come home after being caught in a storm, excited to warm each other up again.
Relationships: Phryne Fisher/Jack Robinson
Comments: 12
Kudos: 90
Collections: MFMMwhumptober2020





	Unsweetened Herbal Tea

**Author's Note:**

> After several weeks of having no inspiration, I came across this Tumblr post and decided to use it for the Extreme Weather prompt. It totally works if you squint just right. Shoutout to acrazyobsession for the beta!
> 
> (Here's the Tumblr link because I can't seem to make the embedding work: https://affectionatesuggestion.tumblr.com/post/154483829495/concept-were-walking-outside-and-it-starts-to)

“I want it on the record that this wasn’t what I had in mind when I proposed to leave your car outside the station.” Phryne leaned back until her shoulder touched the door frame, pouring a small ocean out of her Mary Jane and willing her hushed voice to carry over the roaring of the storm.

The splatter of rain was loud against the pavement, and persistent shadows made the kitchen an obstacle course. Although heavy drops escaped into her eyes and kept her world out of focus the same way fog softened the streets, she refused to stop admiring Jack.

“For once, I find it _almost_ believable that this shouldn’t have gone according to your plan,” came his low voice, the rumble of which she felt all the way across the kitchen table. 

“Almost?”

Jack looked up, piercing her with his pitch-dark gaze. He was several steps ahead in his pursuit of nakedness. In the single pillar of light from outside, Phryne catalogued his face and the line of his shoulders, just learning to be straight again with his heavy overcoat removed. That part of his attire had lasted minutes until soaked, sticking like glue and tasking his suit with shielding his body from the downpour.

“You’re not the one going into work tomorrow without a dry suit and overcoat,” Jack said as he peeled the slightly drier layers of his jacket and waistcoat away. Phryne made no attempt to hide her disappointment; the shirt underneath was mostly unscathed, and she considered dragging him back outside so that the rain might stick it to his chest to her heart’s content.

She paused with her fingers halfway down the buttons of her skirt to watch Jack shed that final layer. Without another glance in her direction, he smoothed apart the two lapels, but she had no doubt he could feel her hungry eyes on him.

“Perhaps I’ll let you borrow one of mine,” Phryne offered magnanimously. “Just the coat, though.” The visible sliver of his chest was moon-touched and too beautiful to hide, with shadowed hollows and surges of muscle that glinted softly silver-blue like an offering. She wanted to cover his carved chest in kisses, to close her eyes as she licked every inch of exposed skin and let the line of hair that started below his navel show her the way down.

After all the times she’d nearly jumped him over a glimpse of the vulnerable hollow at the base of his throat or when the light made his jaw look particularly sharp, she felt she owed it to her past self to seize this opportunity, but a full-body shiver interrupted her.

Phryne preferred her outfits lighter, and she loved indulging in fluttery silks that caressed all her tender places and mimicked the feeling of her soft skin, but her frilly blouse and skirt had nothing on Jack’s woolen suit. Add to that the fact that her stockinged feet stood in a puddle, and it was no surprise that her fingers and toes were nearly blue.

It had been a long day at the station, her presence making the hours he’d spent perusing case files bearable. Phryne had left around lunchtime and come back with sandwiches and cake to last the rest of the day. She’d intended to use this time to catch up on her finances, the office quiet save for the scrape of pen on paper, but the sunlight on her face and Jack’s steady breathing had created the perfect backdrop to lull her to sleep. Hours later, shoving the last of the cake into her mouth and setting aside Jack’s _Collected Shakespeare_ , she’d pointed out that the sunset looked particularly nice.

Holding her hand as they made towards home, Jack had felt his muscles loosen, and they’d even stopped to coo over a chunky cat by the side of the street. She’d been first to feel the drum of the raindrops and thought it thrilling to be the one being chased for a change. It took more than a deep-clean of the streets to make Melbourne’s best detectives run for cover, Phryne had reasoned, inky strands becoming plastered to the sides of her face.

Now, her hair wasn’t the only thing stuck to her skin, and the embrace of drenched silk was far from pleasant. Instead of drifting gently to the kitchen floor, each garment gave a wet squelch as she removed it. Being naked brought her no relief; the cold in her bones had come to stay, determined to keep her mind off Jack’s beautiful body. If her fingers hadn’t felt as stiff as icicles, she would have loved to cross the room and wrap him in her arms.

“You deal with the fire while I put the kettle on?” Phryne proposed, halfheartedly watching the ripple of the muscles of Jack’s arms as he laid his trousers across the back of a chair. It really was infuriating. His outfit may have gotten ruined, but he was almost completely dry except for his adorably ruffled curls, through which he ran an agitated hand as he turned to her again.

“Trust Miss Fisher to leave it up to me to brave the hallway in the nude,” Jack admonished, although more than the fear to meet her staff in the open hall seemed to make him falter; she could see him eyeing her, hanging back to make sure she wouldn’t freeze to the floor.

He waited and watched Phryne hop onto the counter by the back door, long legs dangling delicately over the edge. “It’s nothing Mr. Butler hasn’t seen before. I’ll offer him tea if he wakes up.” She made sure to let her voice ring out imperially. Jack stared at her a moment longer, noticing her nipples, rock-hard peaks that jutted out from her pale breasts like soldiers standing to attention and begged for his tongue.

“Ridiculous woman,” he muttered while making for the door on the opposite side, committing the image of her to memory to let it urge him to hurry. It wasn’t until now, the feeling of Jack’s eyes brimming with concern engraved warmly on her heart, that Phryne noticed how cold she truly felt.

She smiled to herself and prepared the tea, collecting flung-about items of clothing as she went. There was a shoe wedged between the back door and frame, a sliver of the storm visible beyond. A single glimpse was all she needed to feel the icy water on her skin again.

Already, the memory had Jack threaded all throughout, flashes of their hands clasped together and the promise of skin that needed unwrapping at home. More than that, she hadn’t even thought about running ahead. That was where her thoughts lingered as the kettle shrieked for attention, and Phryne quickly closed the door, rummaging the cupboards for two mismatched mugs.

One cup of tea in each hand, having donned Jack’s shirt to cover her chilly flesh, she used her back to push the parlor doors open. The cotton was soft as it slid against her body, and entering the room felt like donning a cloak of the softest fur.

“Two cups of herbal tea, coming right up,” she announced, the smile in her voice replaced by a stuttery gasp as Jack came and took the mugs from her, his large hands covering her own completely.

On the floor lay two fluffy towels, and Phryne sighed in appreciation as she sat down next to Jack. Within minutes, he’d managed to set up a cozy paradise. Her armchairs had been repositioned, dragged across the room to support their backs, and Jack’s smile was warm and proud as she admired the pillows he’d arranged all over.

He pushed the full mugs aside and scooted closer to sit in front of Phryne, who had made the floor next to one of the armchairs her resting place. Stroking her thigh through the barrier of cotton, Jack asked with fatigue creeping into his voice, bracing himself for her response, “What did you do with the rest of our clothes?”

“I collected them all in a neat pile. Atop the kitchen table?” He fixed her with a flat look, loath to admit that he had no desire to get up, trying not to show just how easily she swayed him. “Come on, you know Mr. Butler likes it when we have our fun! Will you lean back against me for a while?”

He turned around with feigned reluctance, feeling the soles of his feet grow warm from the fire as soon as he did, casting only a glance at the untouched cups of tea that steamed happily along. Phryne rubbed his back and shoulders, massaging feeling back into the layers of his skin. Although the cold no longer plagued him, his limbs still felt a little stiff. A look in the direction of the window revealed that the storm was still raging; being inside, Phryne’s thumbs pressing the muscles at the back of his neck, was heavenly.

“Your hands,” groaned Jack, a shock of pleasure jolting down his spine at the sound of Phryne’s sultry chuckle.

“Want them anywhere in particular?” She was making sure to stay above his waistline, but she’d recognize the slight shifts of his hips that told her how hard he was getting anywhere. She picked up a towel and ran it lightly down his chest, creating sweet friction, settling over the soft tangle of his pubic hair. When her towel-clad hand cupped his erection, Phryne, overcome by adoration, had to close her eyes and press her cheek against his back. All she’d done was massage his shoulders, yet Jack was already half-hard in her palm.

“I want you everywhere,” he growled, finally answering her question. “Not just your hands, though.”

He spun, luxuriating in Phryne’s little shriek as he used his body to guide her down against the floor and slid the second towel under her head as a pillow. It was a unique sensation, being naked above her while she remained clothed; his shirt was open to the bottom of her ribcage, the valley between her breasts peeking out between the lapels.

Jack kissed her to the splatter of the rain, keeping his hands above the fabric to tease both her and himself. He had trouble keeping his distance, and even holding himself above her created too big a gap. Covering her completely, he let his tongue feather out while using the friction of the cotton to pleasure her, the shirt rougher than expected as it worked her nipples into aching peaks.

“I want your hands in my hair as I suck your nipples,” he growled against her parted lips, groaning as she raised her head to try and nip at him. “Clutching at me as I stroke you inside. Around my cock.”

With him bumping against her belly and the floor impenetrable under her back, Phryne started to feel blood coursing through her veins again. She reached out to grasp his throbbing length, making a disgruntled noise as Jack swatted at her hand. To prevent further attacks, he intertwined their fingers over her head, and his palms nestled over hers as if right at home. As he wrote love letters against her tongue, he felt Phryne jerking, wanting to remove his shirt without disentangling, and every inch she moved squeezed her small breasts more tightly against his chest.

Her next thrust was a particularly forceful one, perfectly in sync with a clap of thunder that seemed strong enough to shake the building. They tore apart, wide-eyed, Phryne’s face an otherworldly blue in the distorted light. 

For a moment, she feared that Jack would sober up, but it wasn’t long before his eyes lost focus. His heart beating like a drum in his chest, he recalled running from the rain by the side of a euphoric Phryne; she might as well have been bare from the waist up, her blouse completely sheer where her nipples poked against the fabric.

“Give me your breast, Miss Fisher,” Jack ordered, the memory of her swaying flesh sitting like fog over his mind. “But the shirt stays on.”

“Jack,” she shuddered out, momentarily stunned by the way his rough command sent a jolt of arousal down her spine before she was able to sweep the lapel of his shirt aside. He was on her in an instant, one hand around both her delicate wrists now as he used the other to cup her still-covered breast.

The warmth of the fire like a blanket on his back, he blew cool air over the point of her exposed nipple, its deep rose color tempting him. Phryne mewled, a shivery sound that made his hips twitch, and challenged, “Door’s unlocked.”

He adjusted his grip around her arms a little. “If you didn’t wake up Mr. Butler with the whistling of the kettle, I doubt your moans are going to do it.”

“Moans?”

Jack’s tongue against her flesh made her cry out, its very tip prodding lightly at her nipple, and he raised his eyes to her face as if to say, ‘I told you so.’ Phryne’s hair had dried in knotted strands, and most of her make-up had flowed away during the downpour; he’d never seen her look so beautiful. More than that, her small frame submerged in cotton was an incredibly erotic sight.

Picturing her hidden curves, enfolded in the very shirt that had hugged his own lean muscles and sun-kissed skin, Jack closed his eyes before using his tongue to capture her nipple and applying teeth. Phryne’s sweet gasp felt like a gift, the sound putting down roots inside his chest and encouraging him onward.

Although his whole body shuddered above hers, he barely felt his throbbing erection; filling his mind was the bump of her nipple, tasting of rain and bitter perfume as he stroked his lips and the inside of his cheeks with it to a melody of whimpers. He was reveling in the softness of her belly, stroking her there with his unoccupied hand, when he became aware that she was dripping on his shirt, and the thought was enough to leave him breathless with want.

Phryne was ready to combust, squirming as sweat gathered at the small of her back and stuck her shirt to the hardwood floor. A flash of lightning blinded her, and Jack’s eyes were open and piercing hers when the room came back into view. No longer fastened to her needy flesh, he raised his head to bring their foreheads together. 

Kissing him again was like shaking off the last of the icy raindrops. She sighed as Jack stroked his hand from her belly to her knee, scraping his nails along the tender skin behind it, then up again in the warm secret place underneath the shirt she was in. At first, he kept her creamy flesh obscured, not needing his eyes to know his way around.

Phryne clenched her jaw, sparks flying where her wrists rubbed against Jack’s fingers, and her lips slipped from his in her struggle for air as he traced the small bruise he’d given her the day before from memory, the warm fluids covering her skin making his journey easy.

His cock twitched and Phryne sobbed when he touched soft hair and delicate flesh against his fingertips. Jack slid them from her entrance up over her tender folds, tapping her clit in greeting, and he lowered his face to her neck as her body shook with a quick release. This was the thrill she’d braved the wet streets for, knowing that well-placed hands would do away with the stiffness in her joints.

As Phryne’s breathing settled, he brushed soft kisses over her delicate wrists, his heart beating wildly as he saw her watching his lips with a tender expression. One after the other, he placed her hands on her chest and anchored them there with little sweeps of his tongue over her pulse points. 

Her breath caught in her throat when Jack requested permission to expose her sex by curling his fingers around the hem of her shirt, ready to slide it over her hips. Sure enough, she nodded softly, convulsing around nothing as though the tendrils of warm air blowing over her sex were probing fingertips.

“So wet,” Jack rasped, the pink flesh at the apex of her thighs holding his attention. “So beautiful.”

Her folds were pillowy and fragrant with her juices, soaked curls framing her sex and twinkling black and silver in the firelight. Jack licked his dry lips as he moved up her body, settling between her open legs, and she wrapped herself around him, one hand splayed across his sweaty upper back while the other found the messy locks of his hair. The floor was cold against her naked buttocks, a stark contrast to Jack’s heavy cock rubbing against her with every slow undulation of his hips.

Releasing tiny gasps, he covered himself in her liquid heat to lubricate his slide into her body, and Phryne felt his gaze on her like a physical weight. With his forearms on the floor and bracketing her torso, Jack was so close that the little specks of ocean blue in his eyes were visible, and his breath blew like a breeze over her face. She took the opportunity to lean up and kiss him, reaching down to guide his cock into her body as she did.

“Yes, yes, like that,” she cried, trusting Jack’s wet mouth to catch the words before Mr. Butler got a chance to hear them.

Jack could barely contain his own grunt of pleasure as he felt her stretch to welcome his thick cock home. He pushed all the way into Phryne’s pussy, and a shock of desperate desire took hold of him when she shivered and cried out. She touched the sides of his face with hazy fingers, tiny points of softness forcing him to open his eyes and look at her.

He focused on her face, made blurry by their closeness, to find her tongue peeking out and her eyes fierce and fiery on his, silently urging him to get on with it and _move_. Jack withdrew almost completely, only his tip remaining inside, before he pushed back in so hard that her whole body bounced with the force of it. His mouth found hers, his kisses mimicking the steady rhythm of his hips.

Although her pussy gripped him firmly, the strong squeezes of her walls around his cock designed to shove all reason to the bottom of his mind, he didn’t miss the reverent way she whispered, “Full of you.”

Jack’s heart skipped a beat, and he broke their kiss to see her better. Only then did he notice that the rain had let up, sounds as soft as a pleasant shower replacing the roar and rumble of the storm from before. He felt a strange stab of sorrow at the sight of drops of water beading on the window, wanting them to finish before the rainfall did.

“Need...more,” he willed her to understand as he cupped her under her hips and sat up to change the angle of his thrusts. 

“Yes,” Phryne keened, her eyes clear and bright like the sky after a storm. 

Happy to help, she brought her legs around and up against Jack’s chest so he could gather her close and slide in deeper, his back bent and her pussy so tight. Positioned like this, his face was just out of her reach, his eyes boring into hers as he moved again, spearing thrusts into her core that made her eyes glaze over and filthy sounds emerge from deep in her throat.

The smell of sex was thick in the air, and Phryne breathed it in as if she were suffocating. She found herself staring at the throbbing place between her thighs, needing to see Jack’s cock disappear within her and come up branded by her silky want, and brought a hand to her unclad breast as it bounced and jiggled before his eyes.

Jack’s stomach flipped as she pulled at her nipple, her fingertips rough against the nub to simulate the prick of teeth. She let her other hand rub at her swollen clit, the strokes of her fingers as hard and fast as she could manage. Phryne wailed and bucked into hands that gripped her to the point of bruising at the same time as Jack sped up.

For a moment, she was back on the streets, blinking water from her eyes as her lungs burned from running and Jack’s strong hand in hers grounded her. Reality came rushing back, so forceful that holding on was no longer an option. Every cell in her body begged for release, and, opening her eyes to see pleasure contorting Jack’s beautiful face, she broke and felt him right behind her as the rain beat down in its last hurrah.

What came back to her first was Jack’s heavy breathing, then the weight of his head against her slightly damp breast. She watched her fingers draw spirals in his hair and felt her hip being bedecked with variations of the same, each breath a step closer to sleep until his body tensed on top of hers and the tiny movement brought her back to awareness.

“It’s gone cold. The tea,” he murmured, the words not fully wanting to reach her mind. Not with the fire crackling warmly in the hearth and her muscles soft as jelly, not even when her own personal blanket threatened to remove itself from her.

She reached out a hand in Jack’s direction, a gesture intended to urge him to come back; instead, she felt the cold bite of ceramic brushing her fingers as he handed over one of the mugs. Sitting up as much as she had to, Phryne closed her eyes to narrow her focus and took a long and deliberate sip. It was hard not to grimace as the tea hit her tongue, the flavor of the chamomile made stale by the cold. 

In her defense, she’d been distracted, high on adrenaline and excited for the lovemaking ahead. It hadn’t gone at all as she’d expected, and tears sprang to her eyes as she thought back on the moment they’d just shared. Her muscles still twitched with leftover sensation, and her body felt raw in all the ways she liked. All of that was true, but it wasn’t the whole story. She swallowed the tea, suddenly sweet and soothing against the back of her tongue.

“What is it, love?”

Phryne’s shoulders slumped, her fingers tracing the rim of the mug before she set it down. “It tastes like you,” she whispered, looking up when the weight of his gaze became too much to ignore.

“I taste like lukewarm, unsweetened herbal tea?” Jack’s tone was unbelievably gentle, making her want to weep even more, and she itched to kiss that smug little smile off his gorgeous face.

“Before we got home…” Her traitorous voice refused to stay steady, forcing her to lie back and address the dark room. “When the rain picked up, all I could think about was your hand in mine as I tugged you along in need of shelter.”

“You wanted to be someplace dry?” Jack tried carefully, getting nothing but a raised eyebrow in response. Wanting to appease her, he dipped a finger into the tea and circled the nipple of the breast she’d made no attempt to cover up.

Phryne’s voice was clearer when she spoke again, but watching him rub tea into her skin made her shudder and sigh. “I was waiting for the end of the adventure, Jack,” she said with a miserable laugh as if the mere thought of such a thing offended her. “When the thrill subsides and there’s only warmth where it used to be. That’s what I taste when I’m with you.”

“Phryne...” He let his eyes dart around the room, counting the pillows strewn around, looking anywhere but at her crimson face.

“I think there’s its own kind of sweetness in that. Don’t you?” Her hand covered his where it lay against her breast, tracing the strong graceful fingers that had played a leading role in making her fall apart.

There was nothing he could do but stare at her, not if he wanted to keep his own tears from erupting. When he lifted his hand to cup her cheek, she was impossibly soft underneath his fingers, her skin warm and wet with those aggravating tears. Words felt too insignificant to express his love for her, no match for what he felt, the way his heart had stuttered in his chest as her hand pulled on his and their shoes slapped in sync against the sidewalk.

“You bring me sunshine after the rain, Miss Fisher,” he settled on at last, knowing that his words would come up short and smiling all the same as he leaned down and kissed her.

**Author's Note:**

> So, uh... After giving up on every single whumpy fic I tried to write, this is what we're dealing with for this year's Whumptober because it seems I can't handle any angst right now. I hope fluffy, tea-inspired Phrack is enough to give you all a tiny moment of happiness. Thank you for reading! <3


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